C O N T E X T 1 3 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4 23 fabric. Her thoughts were also with the students, whose work had been lost. She outlined the support package that the Scottish Government had made available to rebuild student portfolios, and a pledge to provide up to £5 million match funding towards building recovery and restoration. Hyslop pointed out that most ‘cultural powers’ were already devolved to the Scottish Parliament and that the present government was ‘culturally ambitious’. It was making significant legislative changes and policy developments; providing financial assistance to several major projects; and encouraging partnership working and promoting skills within the sector. She suggested that all of these developments reflected a recognition of the economic, social and cultural benefits that investment in heritage can bring. In terms of financial support, she highlighted the government’s commitment to assist funding for cultural assets with reference to the support provided to the National Museum of Scotland, James V’s Palace at Stirling Castle and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Promoting skills within the heritage sector was part of the government’s strategy, ‘Skills for Scotland’. Hyslop recalled her recent attendance at an Apprentice Week in St Andrew’s Square, where she had turned her hand to slate cutting. Combining the promotion of these skills with investment in the historic environment, she mentioned the government’s support for the Engine Shed, Stirling, which will see a restored railway building provide a new National Conservation Centre where young people will be able to learn traditional and specialist skills for the repair and maintenance of historic buildings. On this latter subject she referred to the Traditional Buildings Health Check Scheme. That pilot project in Stirling which will again develop traditional skills, while promoting proactive building care. Hyslop mentioned the Historic Environment Scotland Bill, which will result in the merger of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland and Historic Scotland to create Historic Environment Scotland (a new NonDepartmental Public Body) to ensure that maximum public benefit is delivered for Scotland’s historic environment. In this same context she mentioned the publication of Our Place inTime: the historic environment strategy for Scotland, which provides a vision and framework for coordinated action across the diverse range of people involved in looking after the historic environment. In the questions that followed, some unease was expressed from the floor about the impact of the new bill and particularly how it will effect local decision making, but Hyslop sought to reassure everyone about the bill’s benefits.While 2014 may be a year of major change for Scotland, Fiona Hyslop confidently expressed a continued commitment to protecting its heritage. Tom Burke Dundee and the art of conservation at a master planning level Mike Galloway: determined to deliver a colossal project in a time of austerity and shrunken ambitions Fiona Hyslop MSP (second from left) with Seán O’Reilly (left), Mike Brown and Emilia MacDonald outside the John MacIntyre Conference Centre I am not sure it was intentional on the part of the day school organisers for the graveyard slot straight after lunch to be spent discussing (urban) resurrection, but any fears we may have had of an egg-and-cresssandwich-induced slumber were quickly dispelled by Mike Galloway’s energetic and engaging presentation. The theme of his talk was the regeneration of Dundee Waterfront, a £1 billion scheme to rebuild and revitalise Dundee’s coastal areas, specifically focused on the area near the city centre where the Tay Road Bridge makes landfall. This area, to be known as the Central Waterfront or ‘The Front’, is the centrepiece of the whole regeneration. It is in the process of being reconstructed from a jungle of flyovers, roundabouts and isolated buildings to extend the city’s civic urban space. The talk’s primary interest to IHBC members was the discussion of how historic precedents of urban design could inform contemporary placemaking initiatives.The designs for the CentralWaterfront have been driven by the need to create a pleasant environment for pedestrians while simultaneously allowing the efficient flow of significant levels of vehicular traffic to and from theTay Road Bridge. Art and aesthetics feature heavily in the proposals, both directly and as a strong influence on other elements. At the heart of the front will be a series of Georgian-inspired civic spaces, which will lead to the waterfront and a new outpost of the Victoria and Albert museum designed by starchitect
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